Since Jeff Francis was put on the DL Mark Redman was given a second chance. He did a pretty good job for not having started in a couple of months. He pitched six innings and gave up two runs on six hits, and only walked one batter. Redman was in control tonight. 

The Rockies weren’t in control the entire game though. They were down in the second but answered right away at the bottom of the inning with a Jeff Baker homerun. He has really proved himself as a major leaguer lately and I think the only Sox he will be seeing this year is the White Sox. Another run came in, in the sixth. But knowing the Rockies I knew that no lead was safe -see Fuentes Blows Another One- and the Marlins came back with two run homerun in the eighth. The Rockies were down one and needed a run to keep the game going, and they got it in the bottom of the eighth. Clint Barmes lead off with a little blooper hit over the shortstop and Matt Holliday followed with another blooper just beyond the reach of the left fielder and shortstop. The runners advanced off of a wild pitch with Baker at the plate, and with a long fly ball Baker got a sac fly to tie up the game. 

The score stayed 4-4 until the eleventh when the Marlins got a run off of a two out hit. Once again the Rockies answered. Yorvit Torrealba  walked and then what would have been a Scott Podsednik sac bunt ended up with him on second and Torrealba on third from a throwing error. With a man on second and third Troy Tulowitzki walked to load up  the bases. Omar Quintanilla tried to advance the runner on third but he grounded to the second baseman, who then thew home to get Torrealba with the first out of the inning. With the bases still loaded Ryan Spilbourghs saved the day with a big hit out to left center; Podsednik and Tulowitzki scored to win the game. 

As I waited for the fireworks tonight, I saw some things that you can’t see on TV. First, well I guess you can see this on TV, Spilly got shaving cream in the face during his TV interview. Second was all the players’ children playing on the field, and I recognized Holliday’s kids. His youngest, Ethen who is a little over one, was carrying around a bat and then proceeded to hit it on the ground and get into a stance and swing. He looked like a real ballplayer. Lastly the fireworks, Coors Field knows how to put on a good fireworks show.

I am sure as a birthday present America would love a Rockies win, so tomorrow they will go for win number two against the Marlins. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: RYAN SPILBOURGHS

Cook has taken over the position of Rockies ace. Tonight was one of the two complete games he has already thrown this season, second in the NL with complete games; one behind Ben Sheets. After last night’s game, any sort of win would have been an improvement, but Cook came out and threw a complete game. He got 14 ground ball outs and only three strikeouts, but the thing about ground outs is the pitch count is low. He ended the eighth inning only having thrown 69 pitches, and ended the game with only 79. His stellar pitching performance also sped up the game, which only lasted 1 hour and 58 minutes, and MLB should take advantage of this because, I don’t know about you, but I have never been to a football, hockey or soccer complete game less than two hours long. 

All the Rockies runs came in the fifth inning. It started off with a Troy Tulowitzki double and then a textbook sac bunt by Cook to move Tulo over to third. Willy Taveras hit a single up the right field line to score Tulo. During Todd Helton’s at bat Taveras stole second, and then, with Helton on first with a walk and Matt Holliday up to the plate, Taveras stole third. Holliday would eventually get on with Bank’s second consecutive walk. After striking out his last two at bats, Brad Hawpe came up to bat and got lucky with a fielder’s choice, which should have been a double play, with one run scoring and then another run came in off of a shortstop throwing error. Garrett Atkins  doubled in Hawpe, who made it to second off of a stolen base. That one inning was all the Rockies needed. 

Cook only gave up five hits on the night and Omar Quintanilla, who replaced Jeff Baker in the ninth, kept it that way. In the top of the ninth with a hardball hit just out of Helton’s reach, Quintanilla ran over, dove for the ball, got it and shot up quicker than you can say Quintanilla. The ball got to Helton just in time for the out. It was a key play in the game for Cook. 

The Rockies can’t get the sweep tomorrow, but can go for the series win against the Padres. Hopefully tonight’s team will show up and not last night’s.  

ROCKSTAR of the game: AARON COOK

Jeff Francis was on the mound and pitched a great game. He gave up 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings. The pitchers have really been stepping up lately for the Rockies, especially the starters. Francis got the win and now is 3-6, closing in on that 500 mark. With a rough start to the year, Francis is coming around and starting to look like the ace he was last year. 

The rest of the Rockies lineup is also starting to play like the National League champions. Jeff Baker and Omar Quintanilla both had another great game. Baker was 2 for 4 with a homerun in the 4th and Quintanilla was 2 for 3 with 2 of the Rockies RBI’s. These two created the winning run tonight in the 6th when Baker got on first with a fielder’s choice and, two batters later, Quintanilla singled to bring Baker home. It is going to be hard to decide who to send down to AAA when Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes come back with Quintanilla and Baker playing so well. 

The bullpen was once again doing its job. Jason Grilli, Taylor Buchholz, and Brain Fuentes all came out of the pen and kept the Indians at bay. Combined, they pitched 3 innings and gave up 0 runs on 1 hit. Fuentes only faced 3 batters, which is unheard of for him. The bullpen has really helped out the team lately and will hopefully keep this going. 

 The Rockies have really been shutting down the Indians. Well, most of the Indians. Former Rockie Jamie Carroll is playing like he is at his home field and, let me tell you, I wish he was.  We are still looking for  a true second baseman to take on a full time position. Carroll had two doubles tonight and batted in 1 run. 

The Rockies are going for the sweep tomorrow night, and this time it is going to happen. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: JEFF BAKER and OMAR QUINTANILLA

The Rockies got started in the 2nd when, after 2 outs,  Willy Taveras got on first with a fielders choice.  Then came something not many players get the chance of doing; Jeff Baker hit an inside the park homerun. Baker’s ball was hit right on the nose; in any other part of the field it would have been a traditional homerun, but this one hit the deepest part and then bounced off the fence into the middle of no man’s land in left center and Baker turned on the jets and made it into home with plenty of time. In the next inning Brad Hawpe homered and brought in Garrett Atkins for 2 more runs. 

The defense was also on it’s A game tonight. The biggest play in the game came in the top of the 6th when the score was 5-1 Rockies and the Indians loaded up the bases. Reynolds got the first out with a strikeout but the bases were still loaded and the tying run was at the plate. Choo was at bat and hit a screamer in Omar Quintanilla’s direction. Quintanilla backhanded a line drive and fired the ball to Baker and got the double play. It is going to be a webgem tonight if you want to check it out. 

After that great play in the field, the Rockies once again came out with their bats. In the bottom of the 6th they scored 2 runs on three hits. And in the 7th scored 3 runs on 4 hits. It was a night the Rockies should see a lot more of with some major players coming off the DL. Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes are supposed to be heading back to the show after rehabbing in the minors. 

Someone new was welcomed to the big leagues today; Doug Bernier made his major league debut today as a Rockie. The Rockies brought him up from AAA for three games until Tulowitzki makes his comeback. The Rockies made this move at a more reasonable hour than some other National League teams. 

The Rockies are going for another win against the Indians tomorrow. The Indians didn’t seem to have a problem with their pitchers batting today unlike an American League owner who blamed the NL for a pitcher’s injury, but you never know: tomorrow is another day. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: JEFF BAKER

Aaron Cook had another great outing on the mound. He pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 10 hits, 2 of  which came off of a Dye homerun in the 5th. Cook had some offensive help today from former White Sox Scott Podsednik who drove in 2 of the Rockies 4 runs. This was a key game for Podsednik who has struggled lately. The Rockies started out hot today scoring 2 runs in the first, with Podsednik bringing Willy Taveras home on a double and on the next pitch, Matt Holliday doubled in Podsednik.

After the White Sox tied up the game in the 5th off of Dye’s homerun, Brad Hawpe, who is an internet celebrity for his sewer pipes and instructional video (on youtube search Brad Hawpe), took Contreras deep in the 6th and gave the Rockies the winning run. Chris Iannetta added an insurance run in the 9th with a bomb off of Logan.

The bullpen threw another great game. Ryan Speier, Taylor Buchholz and Brain Fuentes all came in and combined threw 3 innings -each threw 1 full inning- and only gave up 1 hit. Fuentes’s outing was a little scary for the Rockies because he loaded the bases off of a single and 2 walks with 2 outs.

And that’s not all, Rockies fans cringed as Holliday and Omar Quintanilla both were running for the last out, a popup by Crede. At the last second Quintanilla dropped off and almost ran right into Holliday who by some miracle bobbled the ball and then caught it bare handed. It was an unconventional out but it counted and the Rockies won by 2 runs.

The win today was a good Father’s Day present for my dad, who sits and watches every game with me. I know that the Rockies were winning it for him and all their dad’s back home. Tomorrow is another day and the Rockies have a one game series- a make-up after the snowed out game in April- against the Braves. Chipper was cooling off today and hopefully the Rockies can bring him below .400.

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Greg Reynolds started today’s game on a high after winning his first game against Milwaukee last week, but it was a different story for the young pitcher today. He looked good in the first only giving up one hit but couldn’t get the third out in the second until  4 runs were scored; 3 out of the 4 were on a 2 out homerun by Fred Lewis. Reynolds only lasted 3 2/3 innings and gave up 10 hits.

The rest of the team tried to help Reynolds out with some offense, but  couldn’t bring in the runs. In the second inning Todd Helton lead off with a single and Garrett Atkins brought him home on a double.  Two batters later Yorvit Torrealba knocked in a run with a single.  After the Giants scored another 2 runs in the 3rd the Rockies came right back with 2 runs off of a Matt Holliday double. It looked as if the Rockies had a chance to come back, but couldn’t bring Holliday in from second.

The Giants came right back with 2 more runs in the 4th. In the 5th inning the Rockies had a chance of catching the Giants.  Jeff Baker swinging a hot bat singled to left to start the inning and was followed by a Holliday single.  Helton walked and the bases were loaded for Garrett Atkins who doubled to right and brought in 3 runs.  Atkins was left on second for 2 consecutive outs and was joined on first by Omar Quintanilla.  With 2 men on Ian Stewart couldn’t capitalize and struck out looking. Once again the Rockies left potential runs on base.

Again in the 7th the Rockies had a chance to reach the Giants. With 2 outs the Rockies loaded the bases with  singles by Torrealba and Quintanilla and a walk to Jonathan Herrera, but Ryan Spilborghs struck out looking.  In fact the Rockies struck out a total of 13 times, including 3 strikes by both Holliday and Hawpe.

The Rockies didn’t lose because they didn’t have the opportunities, they lost because they couldn’t finish. Reynolds threw only 3 2/3 innings; Manuel Corpas gave up 2 runs in the 7th with 2 outs- the Giants scored 5 runs with 2 outs-and the Rockies couldn’t clear the bases.

Today’s loss could have easily been a win if only the team could complete what they started. The only good to come from this loss is the 4 tacos for a dollar at Taco Bell tomorrow because the Rockies scored 7 runs.  The Rockies need to regroup and get ready for a quick road trip to the windy city for some interleague play against the White Sox. The Rockies have played well in interleague game it would be nice to get back to a winning streak.

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The Rockies have also sent some players down the minor leagues from spring training.  Ian Stewart, Omar Quintanilla, and Seth Smith were all optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs.  While Humberto Cota was sent to minor league camp.